March 29, 2009

Spring Training is one of the biggest affronts to competitive zeal in all of sports, everybody knows that. A lot of guys gather in Florida sunlight--or, increasingly, in the Arizona glare--to work out off-season kinks, sweat off a few lbs and sign autographs, hardly anything more. Some of them are trying to make teams, and those players go about their work with urgency. But most of them, with guaranteed contracts assuring their roster spots, take camp for what it is, a sort of spa, a lightly themed resort, a way out of chores back home. Did we mention it's called camp? In spring training the main thing to keep in mind is that the games don't count.

We hardly have to channel George Carlin to parse the astonishingly modest ambitions of baseball's seasonal pre-amble, at least compared with other sports. Spring training: We're trying here, don't be too hard on us. The NFL's exhibition season: We'll show you! Nobody's ever pretended it was otherwise, not even baseball itself, which practically gives away the games (relatively speaking), counting on the continued presence of retirees winding out the clock in the sunbaked bleachers for a fan base. Expectations are well-managed, let's put it that way. --Richard Hoffer, SI, "The Rites (and Wrongs) of Spring

Look no further than second base for the Red Sox, and the tweaked abdominal that retired the reigning AL MVP from this year's World Baseball Classic, for why the game, of course, needs spring training. The WBC induced a fiery competitive spirit among some of the game's top performers months before their bodies were conditioned to a fine level. Injuries followed as a result. Even with modern nutrition and workout regimes, the kind of endurance needed to make it through the regular season calls for a long ramp-up to prime time.

There's also the need to evaluate certain prospects under slightly brighter lights than they're used to. There's joy in introductions to the likes of Daniel Bard, or the glove of Angel Chavez. A certain charm to a Saturday afternoon on the couch with a balmy Florida afternoon playing out lazily on the TV screen, watching these pleasant, unfamiliar faces explore the existential meaninglessness of it all.

Even so, after a while Spring Training baseball is kind of like non-alcoholic beer. In many ways, it is the same as the real thing, but in some of the most important ways, it's not. (Also, it tends to be served only at 1 o'clock in the afternoon.)

Take the Yankees game Tuesday. After 7 innings, the score remained a taut 1-1. Tim Wakefield had, to quote Surviving Grady's brilliant Headwarmer Dialogues, "made Teixeira look like he was wearing fifty-pound brass tits." AJ Burnett, meanwhile, embodied Sox' fans worst fears, and both teams had only squeezed across a run apiece on singles by the seventh-inning stretch. It was March, but it was beginning to carry a faint whiff of August or September.

But then the eighth inning rolled around. Manny Delcarmen came on for the Sox in relief of Ramon Ramirez. Already we were seeing the 'B' or possibly 'C' bullpen rotation for this situation. I understand why that's important, but after seeing how the inning worked out, here's hoping we'll never actually meet that particular what-if.

Brad Wilkerson, not Kevin Youkilis, was playing first base, and on an infield tapper after a walk to open the inning, Wilkerson either backed up into Delcarmen or Delcarmen ran into him, but the next thing I knew, everyone was safe, there were Sox sprawled all over the ground and a ball rolling loose and it was very, very much not August-like.

Had this been a real emergency, we could have expected a certain set of strategic decisions, followed, probably, by Herculean tete a tetes between plate and pitchers' mound, accompanied by much deliberation and brow-furrowing and time-calling and stepping off the rubber, all floating in a savory soup of electric tension in one of the teams' sold-out ballparks.

It's not to say that in such a situation, the Yankees still might not have fired up the merry-go-round in that inning and thoroughly extinguished the barn-burner for a final score of 7-1. After all, Hideki Matsui was on deck for the Yankees as Devern Hansack faced down his first batter (Because Matsui is always up. Especially when it's the last place you want to see him up. This is a proven fact).

But I'd like to think that Hansack, serviceable as he's been as a quadruple-A guy for the Red Sox, would not have been the call if this game had meant anything. Austin Jackson is supposed to be good (and his towering homer off Hansack to put the game way a few moments later backed that argument), but the at-bat was hardly an apocalyptic showdown. Even as the grand slam sailed into the night, a mostly-empty City of Palms Park moaned only quietly.

Suds and hops and a golden-brown color. But it just doesn't give you that buzz.

***

Saturday's game against the Twins was a little bit better; all the players seemed to be pouring it on a little more, now that the WBC is over and the season is getting closer. Jerry Remy predicted they would turn it on for this weekend and then retreat into that lower spring-training gear until Opening Day.

When the Sox laid it on a little, they won handily. There are still plenty of 'projects' on this team, including Brad Penny, a rather pedestrian pitcher, delivery-wise, whose sheer size is his chief distinguishing feature so far. On Saturday, Penny gave up two runs early, but settled. Between what he and some of his teammates showed that day, it was easy to picture just how good things could turn out to be this season.

Francisco Liriano had started off sharp for Minnesota, but then gave away outs to the Sox in the bottom of the third by walking Lowrie and plunking Kottaras. Then the new No. 5, Rocco Baldelli, announced his upside by homering to center and putting the Sox up 3-2. After that, they never looked back, handing the Twins a satisfying 9-4 drubbing that sunny afternoon, despite the fact that George Kottaras couldn't seem to locate a pop-up to save his life, poor thing.

There was just a little hint there, as I watched all the new Sox mill around with the tried and true in the dugout, of the enormous potential, the excitement waiting just around the corner. Meanwhile, Remy's prediction was that after this weekend, things will return to their previous sleepy state until the curtain officially goes up on 2009.

March 27, 2009

This post kicks off our series leading up to Draft Day evaluating the Patriots' needs and prospective strategies at each position on the roster. Today, we're starting with quarterbacks.

Obviously, with Tom Brady coming back, the role of starter is presumably filled. At the very least, he will be given quite a long time to make a comeback, and I don't foresee anyone else having a realistic shot at the starting spot. I also think it should be Brady's position to lose.

However, with the trade of Matt Cassel, the Patriots obviously need a backup. They have, in recent history, had great luck with their backup QBs, from Tom Brady himself to the highly professional Damon Huard to Cassel, who proved himself starting-caliber last year.

This offseason, the Patriots have a few possibilities in both free agency and the draft to try to continue that streak and fill the backup spot. As Brent mentioned yesterday, a potential draft solution to the backup QB problem, Pat White, was brought in by the Patriots for a workout this week. The senior at West Virginia University is not only a serviceable quarterback, but has also put in time at running back and wide receiver. The same football team that has employed Troy Brown must like the prospect of that--even if he rides the pine as a backup QB, he could potentially be put to work elsewhere.

Meanwhile, in free agency, there's Patrick Ramsey, whom the Boston Globe's Mike Reiss reported was also brought in by the Patriots for a visit in early March. Ramsey was jerked around for a while by Joe Gibbs and the Washington Redskins, going from backup to starter to backup again, before heading to the Bears and the Jets, who released him last fall. Since this isn't a position of glaring need for the Patriots, I don't underestimate the appeal to Bill Belichick of simply getting some inside info from a former player for the hated rival.

But between the big defensive needs and ongoing Julius Peppers intrigue, not to mention the salary-cap drama that could follow a Peppers signing vis a vis Wilfork and Seymour, I don't think the Patriots should waste a draft pick on this. A more veteran presence as a backup QB would be a nice to have, but the team also shouldn't spend overmuch--there's already Kevin O'Connell, whom you might remember being suggested as a replacement for Cassel even last season. Personally, I'd be just as happy to see O'Connell move up the depth chart--like Brady and Cassel before him, he's already been raised in the system.

March 23, 2009

He is not universally beloved anywhere, even Boston. We've loved him. We've hated him. We've stood in awe of him and we've mocked him. He's been called our baseball savior and a symbol of our obnoxiousness.

Good, bad, or indifferent, though, you cannot deny his importance. Curt's been at the center of practically every major Red Sox event
since he arrived here shortly after the Grady Little debacle in 2003.
He's also been at the center of most of the debates.

March 19, 2009

The pace of news in this Patriots offseason continues to be fast and furious. Just this week, the Patriots have signed two players, former Buccaneers wideout Joey Galloway and returning defensive lineman Mike Wright.

After only a few days, however, those recent signings, and the departures of Scott Pioli, Josh McDaniels, Larry Izzo (OUCH), Matt Cassel, Mike Vrabel, Lonnie Paxton, Heath Evans and Jabar Gaffney, as well as the arrival or re-signing of Greg Lewis, Chris Baker, Nathan Hodel, Brad Listorti, Shawn Springs, Leigh Bodden, Al Johnson and Fred Taylor in addition to Galloway and Wright...(deep breath)...are already being left aside in favor of the subject of Julius Peppers.

According to a report that first appeared at NFL.com, league sources have let slip that the Patriots and Panthers are in talks to trade Peppers to the Patriots for the 34th overall pick the Patriots received in return for both Matt Cassel and (this still hurts to type) Mike Vrabel. The NFL.com report further states that the Patriots would use the versatile veteran as an outside linebacker rather than a lineman.

After that, though, the plot has thickened around this story. The NFL Network's Adam Schefter was quick with a counter-scoop asserting that the original report is false. In the echo chamber of talk radio and the pigskin internet, the consensus seems to be that Peppers himself is keen to play for the Pats, but the teams may not have anything official going on.

Schefter made some interesting points in pooh-poohing the idea of the Peppers trade, according to transcriptions of his comments at Boston.com, the most significant of which is the fact that Peppers hasn't signed his franchise tender yet, meaning the Panthers actually can't technically trade him at this time. Schefter's other points seemed a bit more speculative--that the kind of contract Peppers wants would destabilize the salary cap structure, compromising the Patriots' negotiating position with Richard Seymour and Vince Wilfork, both of whom will need to be re-signed soon. He also added that Peppers doesn't seem like a "Patriots kind of guy".

As a Patriots fan, if the Patriots don't get someone like Julius Peppers in return for that 34th pick, I will be sorely, sorely disappointed.

Yes, truth be told, no matter how many new toys we have to play with, no matter how I try to focus on Tom Brady coming back and other positive things to look forward to this season, the Cassel / Vrabel trade as it currently stands still sticks in my craw.

The Patriots still need a lot of new blood, despite all the moves they've already made, and where they especially need it is on defense, where their players are either aging or too green. Not only do they need dynamic, top-caliber defensive players, but they need players still young enough to be powerful while old enough to be seasoned.

Peppers seems to fit that bill, Schefter's expert opinion aside. It's easy to make an anecdotal criticism that he "flashes"--whatever that means--but the numbers tell a different story. Here's another description from Wikipedia:

In 2003, during the Panthers' Super Bowl run, he had 46 tackles, 7 sacks, and 3 forced fumbles. The next year, Peppers was selected to his first ever Pro Bowl
with 65 tackles, 11 sacks, 2 interceptions, 4 forced fumbles, and two
touchdowns. On October 15, 2006, Peppers became the Panthers' all-time sacks leader. [1]

Julius Peppers is known as one of the most athletic and versatile
players in the NFL. In his career, Peppers has 8 blocked kicks (extra
points and field goal attempts). Peppers has had double-digit sacks in
all but 2 seasons. In 2008, Julius Peppers was voted to the 2009Pro Bowl, where he recorded an interception.

Following Mike Minter's retirement, Peppers was named as the Panthers defensive captain.

Multiple Pro Bowls, all but two seasons with double-digit sacks, and a captain, demonstrating a capacity for leadership and the respect of his teammates...none of that suggests "flash" to me.

Plus, Mike Vrabel himself, salvaged from the scrap heap of the Pittsburgh Steelers, is a pretty good indication that other teams' evaluations of players aren't always relevant to how the Patriots can use them.

The most important quality in Peppers is his veteran status and leadership experience. The Patriots need to replace that after losing Vrabel every bit as much as they need to replace a body on defense. And they need to get more in return for their veteran linchpin of the defense than a draft pick.

It actually makes me a bit peeved when I consider that the Patriots might not make this move. Even if it's not this particular player, they better not still be holding that 34th pick when draft day comes around. Bill Belichick doesn't usually build through the unknown quantities in the draft, and with good reason. The last thing this team's defense needs right now is another rookie to assimilate--why wouldn't you take a known quantity with a good track record instead?

March 08, 2009

So here I am on an unseasonably warm Sunday afternoon, watching the Red Sox tee off on their ALCS nemesis, Tampa Bay, enjoying the idyllic pre-season pace of it all while I gear up for another work week. I began last year's baseball season with the worst football hangover I'd ever experienced, and I've been determined this year to make up for the fact that I couldn't muster any enthusiasm for my baseball team until at least last May or June.

But football will just not quit lobbing bombshells. Not even for a minute.

First, there was the news that T.O. had been released by the Dallas Cowboys. Man, if even Jerry Jones doesn't want to put up with you anymore, what does that say about you?

And now today, another TO-related meteor is heading for the Patriots' back yard; multiple media outlets are now reporting that he has signed a one-year, $6.5 million contract with our neighbor to the north, the Buffalo Bills.

Sounds to me like the Bills are trying their hand at the kind of move the Patriots made with Randy Moss when they brought him in with a one-year, highly conditional contract. Moss had also been a problem child on previous teams, but he became a model prisoner while playing with the Patriots. Most credit Belichick for that, but after witnessing Randy's heartbreak when Brady went down last year, I think that the QB deserves some credit for that, too.

I don't think the Bills have either the coach or franchise quarterback that the Patriots do to help keep a behavior problem like Moss or TO in check, and I think that TO is an even more dysfunctional player than Randy Moss ever was. But maybe that's just my bias as a Pats fan talking.

One thing's for sure--the 2009 season keeps getting more and more interesting, even before it begins.

The overall chemistry and personality of the 2009 club is starting to take shape. So far that shape is, generally, young, homegrown and hilarious.

For evidence of this, the official site's featured video of Sox photo-day outtakes is not to be missed. Dustin Pedroia...the guy is just ruthlessly funny. He never lets up on the funny. And I may never get tired of hearing Youk try to pronounce 'recyclable bottles'. (I'm also thrilled the Youk-Fu will be perserved for posterity on the Jumbo-Tron this season).

Meanwhile, today Justin Masterson (the largest man ever to drive a Mini Cooper) opened his press conference with some impromptu beatboxing.

They're as carefree a team so far this year as any I can remember (including the 2004 Idiots--they played up their devil-may-care attitude, but tension lurked in the background for that team all year).

But there's also a serious side to all this talented youthful exuberance. In the midst of the lazy lack of meaning of today's Spring Training game against Tampa Bay, NESN broadcasters Don Orsillo and Gordon Edes--in the booth today in Remy's continued absence*--discussed their surprise at how the Sox had sewed up both Youk and Pedroia this off-season. Even as they spoke, reports (still maddeningly unconfirmed) surfaced about an extension to Jon Lester's contract.

At the end of their contemplation, the announcers concluded the boys have taken a hometown discount because they just plain like playing here. Or maybe because they don't know anything else.

If so, the team reaps another benefit from its strong farm system--players bred and selected for thriving in the Boston environment. Players now as 'born into it' as some of the fans.

***

That said, in contrast to yesterday's WBC, we rejoined the Red Sox today on a
downright sleepy afternoon in Ft. Myers. Up here in Massachusetts,
even, it was a balmy high-50's day with bright sunshine, taking some of
the edge off losing an hour to Daylight Savings Time.

Papelbon's
4th was a prime example of the easy pace--the Sox fireballer was tossing at a
lackadaisical (for him) 93 mph, and gave up two looping hits in his
inning, one of which came off the bat of Evan Longoria. I don't care if
you are Jonathan Papelbon and it's March, Evan Longoria's gonna punish
a 93 mph fastball.

(Yeah, I'll admit to some serious
covetousness toward Tampa Bay vis a vis Mr. Longoria. In fact, Tampa
Bay's players have been the objects of my covetousness probably more
than any other team, including Scott Kazmir and Rocco Baldelli. Who is
now ours. Justice at last.)

This was part of my surprise at the
intensity of yesterday's WBC--all of a sudden all of those players
looked like they were playing Game 7 of the World Series, while back
here at the ranch everybody's still just warming up.

But that's ok. Even without the
hellfire and brimstone routine, Papelbon earned a couple of nifty
strikeouts, one with Mr. Splitty and the other with Mr. 93 on the
inside corner to get Gabe Gross looking. It's excellent just to see him
mixing his pitches like that and having an effective inning. The
fireworks can wait.

*Orsillo said today that the Rem-Dawg will be back on the next NESN telecast. I really hope so. It's been too long and I'm getting worried about him.

March 07, 2009

Team USA had little to show for itself when all was said and done in the first World Baseball Classic, so it had something to prove in its opener this time around. Team Canada, meanwhile, played on home turf, in front of a crowd the likes of which the Blue Jays haven't been able to draw to the Rogers Centre since 1993.

And so there was a kind of bombastic, cornfed, North American style to this game, the debut for these two teams in the second-ever World Baseball Classic. There would be five home runs between the sides when all was said and done, and a surprising amount of drama, given it was March baseball.

Pitching performances were the difference in the end--in a game with very little wiggle room, the USA pitching staff just barely won a heroic arm-wrestling match with team Canada. Whenever the big flies let up, it was to allow for a fist-pumping, hollering walk off the field after a called third strike with runners in scoring position. They were miniaturized efforts, beginning with Jake Peavy's three-inning appearance, but otherwise felt uncannily like we'd all suddenly been transported back a few months to October.

Team Canada began the one-potato, two-potato scoring and had a one-run lead before one Kevin Edmund Youkilis of Cincinnati, Ohio, United States of America, went yard to tie the game and begin an American scoring rally that would continue with a fireworks display from Brian McCann and Adam Dunn.

By the top of the ninth inning, Dunn sat in the dugout hyperventilating into his hat and pretending to check his pulse, eyes wide, as JJ Putz faced down Jason Bay. After a heart-stopping array of foul balls, Bay finally sent a can of corn into right field. 6-5 USA.

Calendar be damned. It had been an absolute barn-burner.

Youkilis also combined with your reigning AL MVP for a number of crisp plays on the right side of the infield. During the broadcast, ESPN's Victor Rojas and Joe Magrane made much of Pedroia's teammates' interviews on him prior to the game. They said it was Pedroia who'd sparked a defiant and intense spirit in the US team this time around.

March 02, 2009

It was a good weekend for sports, or at least an interesting one. I got distracted, writing-wise, by the ALMIGHTY IMPORTANCE of weighing in on the Cassel / Vrabel Trade and so did not have time / energy / motivation / wherewithal to post about the Sox (as we know, for whatever reason, I have a hard time holding the two sports in my brain at once).

But I also tuned in yesterday to Josh's first ST start against an MLB team--the Twins. As well as Dustin Pedroia's first RBI, Kevin Youkilis's first post-strikeout hat-flip, and Jonathan Papelbon's first heaters of the preseason.

It was blowing snow outside and would be for most of the night and into today; by contrast, on TV thin-blooded Floridians donned windbreakers in...70 degrees? Still, if you ignored your own windows and the wide receivers' numbers on many of the Sox players, you could almost trick yourself into thinking it was April already.

It was great just to see the familiar faces out on the diamond--Papi and Josh Bard as well as the aforementioned. (Julio Lugo pointedly not referenced). But they're really not themselves yet...the guys who are really putting on a show are the minor leaguers and quadruple-a players.

Of the non-everyday players we got a taste of this weekend, it was Angel Chavez, formerly of the Dodgers, who stood out to me. Scouting reports on him are lukewarm--SoxProspects.com credits him for plus defensive skills but 'mediocre tools' at the plate, i.e. another Alex Gonzalez.

True to form, Chavez put on a clinic in the field yesterday while remaining forgettable at the plate. But some of his ranging, diving plays--at least one of which ate Julio's lunch--were a sight to behold.

And honestly, these days I really, really miss Alex Gonzalez.

At the very least, Chavez looks to be a *very* high value utilityman in the infield with Alex Cora now among the dearly departed.

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